ABSTRACT

According to numbers of cases reported and in the opinion of many in the public health professions, salmonellosis is one of the most common infectious diseases transmitted by contaminated foods. The most feared infection caused by bacteria in this genus is typhoid fever, an infection caused by Salmonella typhi; most feared because it is by far the most severe of the salmonellosis infections in terms of symptoms and outcomes. It has also become true in more recent years that those cases of typhoid fever which do occur, in this and other developed countries, are most likely to be foodborne rather than waterborne as in the past. Black et al. from Massachusetts General Hospital reviewed unusual aspects of the cases of salmonellosis over a period of 6 years. They concluded that salmonellosis can be divided into four different clinical syndromes: gastroenteritis, bacteremia with or without extraintestinal localization, enteric fever, and the carrier state.